Learn all about these important updates, and more, in February’s digital marketing round-up.
—
Google officially announces the new Google Search Console is available for everyone
Google has officially announced the full roll out of the new beta version of the Google Search Console on the Webmaster blog. The old interface will remain up for the foreseeable future, and you can continue to use both versions of the Google Search Console. Google has said there is a lot more to come in the new Google Search Console. The company wants users to submit feedback about the new Search Console to express “which feature would you love to see in the next iteration of Search Console.”
Ad-free YouTube Red coming to 100 more countries
YouTube is looking to expand its subscription service, YouTube Red, to as many as 100 more countries. That’s a significant increase from the 5 countries where it’s currently available.
YouTube Red is perhaps most notable for letting subscribers browse YouTube without encountering any ads. It also offers a selection of premium content that users can only access with a subscription.
New features in Bing Ads to get excited about
New year, new you…new updates! With 2018 finally here, Bing is rolling out some awesome new features that you’ll need in your marketing strategy. They’re going to release the most wanted Bing pilots that are coming out based on YOUR requests, the scoop on what Bing is working on for the future, and the coolest new tools that are going to be at your fingertips.
AdWords Keyword Planner update appears to be rolling out in the new interface
Google appears to be rolling out an overhaul of AdWords Keyword Planner in the new AdWords interface.
The workflows in the new Keywords Planner are much more streamlined than the current/old version, and it uses Google’s Material Design, matching the new AdWords interface. The best indication of this new approach is immediately apparent from the start screen. Whereas the old version had multiple options and links, the new start screen condenses things down to just two options: “Find new keywords” and “Get metrics and forecasts for your keywords”.
YouTube goes local with location tagging for uploads and Live Streams
YouTube now allows creators to tag their video uploads and live streams with locations, which in turn makes it possible for viewers to find videos and streams by location. The new feature was announced together with a number of other YouTube Live updates earlier this month.
YouTube’s mobile app now automatically suggests to add location tags whenever a user uploads a video or starts a live stream. These tags are based on the phone’s physical location, and can include cities, districts or even local businesses and landmarks. Anyone who doesn’t want to add a location to their videos can still do so as well.
Google’s snippets update: how long should your meta description be?
Facebook Bans All Ads for Cryptocurrency
Facebook has created a new policy which effectively bans ads for cryptocurrency, as well as other financial products.
The reason for this policy change, Facebook says, is to honor one of its core advertising principles that ads should be safe. Ads for cryptocurrency are frequently tied to misleading and deceptive practices, the company believes.
Google releases an SEO tool that measures 10 SEO metrics
Google’s Webmaster Central announced an SEO Audit category to their Chrome Lighthouse developers extension.
Should you get excited?
The plugin is deceptively basic. However, it’s worth a look because if some of the factors the plugin measures correlate to actual ranking factors, then it may be worthwhile to add this to your SEO toolbox.
Google Search Console can show clicks to HTTP after site migration to HTTPS
So you moved your site from HTTP to HTTPS, you feel good about it, but for some reason, Google Search Console’s Search Analytics report for the old HTTP property is still showing some click data to the old HTTP property. Why? Well, John Mueller said it is normal to show some clicks because some queries can still trigger the HTTP version even if the canonical version is set to HTTPS.
Introducing the mobile Speed Scorecard and Impact Calculator
This month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google introduced the mobile Speed Scorecard: an easy-to-use tool that allows you to compare your mobile speed with other companies’.
The Speed Scorecard shows the speeds of thousands of sites from 12 countries across the globe. It’s powered by Chrome User Experience Report, the largest database of real-user latency data for how Chrome users experience popular destinations on the web.
Rand Fishkin leaves Moz, announces a new start-up
Rand Fishkin, the co-founder of Moz, announced his new company after officially leaving his day-to-day operations at Moz yesterday. He is starting a company named SparkToro, a technology platform in the influencer and audience intelligence marketing space.
Fishkin started the well-known SEO platform over a decade ago with his mother, Gillian. In fact, he dropped out of college to make the company now known as Moz about 17 years ago. Last July we learned he was leaving Moz after stepping down as CEO back in 2014.
